At last, I am home in Swaziland after burying my dear mom
this past Monday. I did a mid-week
post with a Eulogy to her, so if you are interested in knowing about the
amazing woman who changed my life’s trajectory when she adopted me then please
go to: http://janinemaxwell.blogspot.com/2016/02/dear-mom.html
I am physically and emotionally exhausted. I have travelled to the US and Canada
twice in the past month and have spent 23 of the past 35 days coming or going.
Today and tomorrow I will rest and try to remember where I left off with my job
over a month ago.
Today’s blog will be short, but it will tell you about four
new babies that are either here or that we believe are coming soon.
#1 and #2 – a set of male twins, born May 10, 2015 (and they are our 8th set of twins). They were named Samson and Samuel by
their mother. Their father ran away when he heard the mother was pregnant and
then shortly after birth the mother dumped the babies with their Grandmother
leaving them to starve in a very rural homestead. They have been in and out of hospital for malnutrition and
finally we were called to help the life-threatening situation. On Wednesday they were placed at the El
Roi Baby home and on Friday we received a call from some neighbors thanking us
for helping with the babies. They said that the Grandmother was looking better
already as she was now able to eat again because she didn’t have to give all of
her food to the babies (“all of her food” was thin porridge made of ground
maize – nothing else).
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| Note the size difference between the twins. |
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| This is Samuel - 10 pounds at 9-months old |
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| This is Samson - 18 pounds at 9-months old |
#3 – is a 2-month old whose mother is mentally ill. The newborn is in danger and the police
were to take the mother to the Psychiatric hospital and the baby was to come to
us. Unfortunately, the police went on strike this weekend so all plans were put
on hold. We are unable to find/receive the baby without the assistance of the
police. So we wait, and we pray that this tiny little one is alive on Monday
and will come home to us.
#4 – I got a phone call while in Canada from a woman who
said that a baby had been dumped and she needed my help. I directed her to the proper government
office for assistance, but she said she had been there and was turned away. I
put my Swazi team on the case and have learned that the woman who called is the
mother of the 3-month old baby. She was diagnosed with cancer and send to South
Africa, where they removed both of her breasts. I don’t know the order that this all happened in, but she
says her baby is starving to death because she can’t breast feed. We will meet with her on Monday and see
if she needs bottles and formulas or if there is more to the story that is
causing her to want to give away her newborn baby.
And that’s how it goes here. No babies for a month and then calls about four of them in
18 hours.
I will update you on them all next Saturday.
February has been ANGEL month at Heart for Africa and all of
our posts have been geared towards getting ALL of the children at the baby home
fully funded. This is the last time I will ask for a while, but would you
consider becoming a monthly donor today to help support Sampson, Samuel of the
other two who may arrive any day?
I thank you for
any support you can give.
Live from Swaziland… I am going back to bed.
Janine
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